Forget The Plan But Not Planning | Agile | Awaken Your Genius
Hello there! Welcome to my weekly LEAPS.
You’re receiving this email because you subscribed to my weekly Wednesday feature or our mailing list. Every Wednesday, I share 5 things using our LEAPS approach:
Learn: something new or an idea
Energy: an energy (good or bad) word and it’s meaning
Action: something to do
Processing: a question to consider
Shout out: something or someone that I want to celebrate or acknowledge
LEARN
Something Worth Sharing
Forget The Plan But Not Planning
I’ve been thinking recently about a few of the incredible things I’ve managed to somehow achieve in life - along with the many challenging and painful experiences that came with them. If I’m honest, none of these things were anything I could have predicted, let alone planned for. I came across a brilliant quote that beautifully summed this up:
“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”
- Dwight D Eisenhower
The reality is that when we plan, we do so with the knowledge and experiences we’ve accumulated up to that point. The uncertainty of the future and all that it holds means that it is almost impossible to really have a plan that will be applicable. This doesn’t mean that it isn’t important to have goals and a vision, it just means that the gap between now and the future needs to be embraced with an open mind!
The value of planning lies in the preparation it provides as well as:
Thinking creatively and critically
Developing self, team and situational awareness
Building confidence
Improving adaptability and resilience
Team dynamics and alignment
ENERGY
An emotion or energy; a stand-out word / s
Agile
I love the word ‘agile’. It seems to fit well with the learn above.
It means "having the quickness of motion, nimble, active" (of body or mind), and originated from Latin AGERE meaning "to set in motion, keep in movement".
ACTION
Something small that you can do that might make a big difference
Practice Planning
See if you can dream up - if you haven’t already - some future goals. Make them big and interesting. Then practice planning (don’t get caught on trying to nail down a definitive ‘plan’). To help, think about:
What is the big ‘purpose’ and why?
What impact do you want to have as a consequence?
What are the possible impacts (good/bad) that could happen?
What needs to happen to move towards this?
What type of support / help / guidance do you think you need?
How do you - and others - want to end up feeling about this?
What style of leadership approach might help?
PROCESSING
A question to think about and consider (you can discuss this with someone or write your thoughts down)
“In what ways - and with what - do you need to be more skeptically curious?”
I was reading a book (see below) that prompted this question. The book suggests that we can sometimes be overly accepting of information e.g. reading things on social media. We need to strike a balance and be more skeptically curious: open and yet challenging.
I’d love for you to send me your own stories / thoughts about this. Drop me a line with your answer / thoughts on this question
SHOUT OUT
Who / what I think deserves recognition - my gratitude or to be celebrated.
Parents With Children Flying The Nest
This is a personal one this week. Our middle son has been in Canada living his best life near a ski resort for a couple of years now. Recently, we waved off our oldest boy as he and his girlfriend left for a year down-under in Australia. It’s a funny feeling, the one where you are both excited for them and sad for yourself! Shout out to all fellow parents with children heading off to university and travelling etc.
BONUS GIFT FOR YOU
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If you’d like to discuss having your ideas, business or culture captured visually - you can also let me know via email.
LEAPS is a process used by our team and clients all the time - and even my own family on a daily basis.
I’ll be sharing a set of LEAPS each week with you and encourage you to do your own version:
L: what have you learned?
E: what’s your energy / feeling word
A: what’s one thing you need to do?
P: what are you thinking / processing?
S: who or what can you shout out?
